Now You See Me
by TinkerTailorSoldier
Summary: What would happen if a normal, Irish girl moved into Forks? Gwyneth Callaghan is a sarcastic, cunning, ambitious human, who has been living in sweet innocence of not knowing anything about the supernatural stuff. All Gwyn wants is to be accepted to the university of her dreams, for the field of Pharmacy. How much can things complicate in one week?
1. Prologue

**Prologue: Disgusting Weather and Other Problems**

What was my first day at Forks like? Well, understandably, it was far from perfect. Not only because of its bad weather conditions; as a proud ex-inhabitant of Ireland, I was used to rain, fog, wind, and other disgusting examples of northern weather. The main problem of mine was, that the house my aunt and I were supposed to move into, had a problem with floors (or something like that), therefore, we couldn't have moved in until an appropriate person would come, see what was wrong with it, and perhaps even manage to fix it. We were recommended to spend the first few days in a local bed and breakfast (called _At Emily's_ ), which was situated about five miles away from the city centre (although the word "centre" might be an exaggeration, considering it was Forks), in the middle of La Push natural reservation.

As we came to Emily's, a polite woman in her early thirtieth welcomed us with a warm, shy smile on her lips. I figured she was the owner of the building – perhaps even the woman the B&B was named after – _Emily_. There was a scary thing about this kind Emily though, that attracted my attention immediately. It was the left side of her face. Five deep, long scars were engraved all over her left cheek, some of them reaching up to her eye, others spreading down to her lips. It was sad that a young, beautiful woman like her had such a noticeable physical deformation. For that, I should have pitied her, instead of my thinking about the Phantom of the Opera every time Emily had been around.

So no, the weather really wasn't the first ugly thing I came across in Forks.

The accommodation was a real mess to deal with; however, with my always optimistic mind (notice the sarcasm), I decided to free myself from any hints of bad attitude. This determination of mine lasted until we arrived in the local car shop, where we were told that the beautiful, super-new, peas-green Volkswagen Golf TDI my aunt had ordered just a few days ago wasn't available anymore. The seller also added that he would order another one immediately, but we would have to wait four weeks for the car to be transferred from Seattle.  
Yeah, there was no freaking way I was going to wait four damned weeks! Even if I went to Seattle on my own, bought the car and came back to Forks in it, it would take me four hours, instead of four damned weeks. That was why the second thing my aunt did the day we moved in, was driving me to Seattle, in order to buy me a car.

In the end, the Volkswagen I received hadn't my favourite peas-green colour, neither it was new or TDI. But still, it was Golf and Golf was all I needed. It hadn't bothered me for the slightest, that I ended up with a common, yellow Volkswagen Golf combi, made in 2000. Because I was well aware of that it could have been worse.

After we came back, it was getting dark. I must sincerely claim I would have never found the way back to Emily's, if I had driven alone. Fortunately, my aunt was driving all the way in front of me. Her GPS navigation led us back to the particular B&B, and I could finally get a shower and jump to the comfortably-looking bed in my bedroom.

Sweet sleep was waiting for me. It was shouting my name and waving at me, for me to fall in it deservedly.

"Gwyn," my aunt's gentle voice hit my ears the moment a dream of strawberry cake knocked on the door of my subconsciousness.

"Are you asleep yet?" She continued to ask me questions, but I refused to let her know that I haven't gotten a chance to fall asleep so far.  
"I just... wanted to tell you how incredibly sorry I am for that we had to move from Dublin. I know you loved Ireland and now, I see why you thought it would be a bad idea to move away. I know there's no defence for what I had to do, although it wasn't my decision." I noticed a slight shadow of remorse in her voice, while growing unsure about if it was still our moving-away she was speaking about. "You must know though, that all I did must have been done for your safety. I wish I could have told you more, but..."

It was official now: I had no freakin' idea what my aunt had been babbling about.

"Good night, sweetheart," she sighed, apparently defeated by her own thought processes. As the door of my bedroom closed behind her, I kicked the blankets away from myself, and sat up on the bed as fast as I could. All right... what the hell was that supposed to mean?


	2. Speed Limits

**I. Speed Limits**

 _"Yes, Officer, I did see the speed limit sign I just didn't see YOU!" - Unknown Author_

* * *

Perhaps, it's time to introduce myself. For those who care, my name is Gwyneth Callaghan, I am eighteen years old and I'm passing to the senior year of high school. Currently, I'm living in general happiness of my having only ten more months to graduation. Then, I will get away from the damned education system and finally start to study things I'm interested in.  
My aunt, _Hayden O'Leary_ , decided to move us from Dublin to Forks only a few months ago. Until last night, I thought it was for that she was offered a better salary and working conditions in the USA, than in Ireland. Although I have to admit that the money theory had a few illogical aspects in it; for example, Hayden was a plastic surgeon. She had her own, private clinic back in Dublin,the patients of which paid her more than she would ever be given by a State hospital somewhere in the USA. And trust me when I say she had never been out of money.

That was, after all, why she didn't hesitate to adopt me, after my parents... well, went missing. I was ten when they went for Christmas holidays to the Dolomite mountains, in order to celebrate their eleventh wedding anniversary. Therefore, father bought seven-days-long stay in a luxurious hotel in Italy. Nothing could have gone wrong, right? Well, it apparently could.  
I had never understood what exactly happened the day Hayden told me the two of them went missing. The police said they had gone out of the downhill course, when an avalanche swept them away. I hadn't believed it, because my parents weren't reckless adventurers, while I thought they would never take such a risk. Obviously, I had been mistaken.

Despite this sad coincidence, I'd never complain about my life. The past eight years, Hayden did her best to take care of me. Even though I was an ass to her, always determined to argue about stupidities, I knew she was working hard to support me in everything I did. And that was something I would never be able to pay her back for.

Nevertheless, back to the story I wanted to tell you.

In the morning after the strange confession, I wanted to confront my aunt about what she had told me, yet, the fate didn't agree with my plans. I got no chance to do so, because every time I wanted to ask her, something (or someone) interrupted me. At first, it was my aunt herself, making me decide which dress suited her best for the first day in her new job. At breakfast, it was Emily who asked us if we wanted scrambled eggs with bacon, or scrambled eggs without it. When I wanted to express my thoughts for the third time, a strange, shirtless guy came into the dining room, hugged Emily and kissed her on the cheek. Ems (as I decided to start calling her) blushed widely the moment he touched her, pulling away from him, motioning towards us.

"Oh. You haven't told me we had guests." The man's sentence turned out to be very unfriendly, when he noticed us. He stiffed, shooting us a careful glance. I wasn't sure what it was about him that made goosebumps appear on my skin – considering that he seemed to be just another grumpy Indian guy, whose family was abandoned from Forks into the La Push by Abe Lincoln (or someone like that). Naturally, he wasn't the nicest person alive, having to spend his entire life in a forest.

To answer your unspoken question, yes, I had whole ten hours of flight to study a few facts about the place we were moving into, and yes, I spent them studying.

"Sam, please..." Emily sighed over his behaviour, pushing her way around him, towards us. "This is Doctor Hayden O'Leary, new support to the Forks hospital. And this is Hayden's niece, Gwyneth. They moved in yesterday, from Dublin. Doctor O'Leary, Gwyneth, this is-"

"Samuel Uley, owner of this place," said the man coolly. Wondering what his problem was, me and my aunt exchanged looks. Hayden then cleared her throat, putting down her fork and standing up slowly.

"Umm... it is very nice to meet you, Mr. Uley. I'd like to thank you for letting us stay in your lovely house. Thank you too, Emily, for everything." She said, with a small smile on her face, kicking me under the table. "We have to go now, unfortunately. Patients won't wait, I'm afraid."

Oh my. Wasn't the jerk supposed to be grateful for genuinely having _some_ customers? Perhaps, I just hadn't noticed that this _Sam-douche_ was a millionaire, for his coming into his girlfriend's house half-naked. It hadn't pleased me to run away from the ostensible battlefield like that either. Therefore, I, at least, bumped my shoulder into the guy's chest while I passed around him. Being bare 5 feet 7 inches tall (and having strength of an eleven-year-old tortoise) however, I bet this little rebellion of mine hadn't affected him as much as I would have liked.

"Of course! Have a nice day, see you tonight!" Emily called after us, as we exited the room quickly.

"I'm not surprised that Wilson – or what was the president's name – decided to kick Indians out of civilisation. Especially if they were all acting as arrogantly as this douche," I stated realistically, before Hayden grinned at me.

"Shush, haven't you heard him? He owns this place," she unlocked her car, and so did I with my lovely Golf. "He can kick us out without a blink of an eye; so please, save these racist considerations for yourself, or tell me after we get the hell out of here."

"Come on! What is he, a _freakin'_ satellite? He can't hear it, there're four walls between us and him," my right palm waved her worries away.

"Well, I would be careful with that. Some people have so developed hearing, that they can catch sounds much more over 600 Hertz, which is the normal hearing of-"

"Yeah, alright, I got it. He could be one of the... what... ten human beings in this world, who could hear us?" I asked her, not satisfied with her idea. "That though doesn't change anything about the fact, that you probably even agree with me; which means you're a racist too." I pointed out.

She shrugged innocently. "Can't deny that now, can I?"

I shook my head, a large, victorious smirk appearing on my face.

Hayden meanwhile frowned a bit, letting me know she was already somewhere else in her thoughts. Her hand went to the handle of her car's door, on the side of the driver, and she opened it as gently as ever. "Honey, are you sure you don't need a lift just today?"

Now, it was my time to frown. If only we hadn't discussed it million times this morning, I would have just passed it with a roll of my eyes. "No, I don't, because I'm not dumb. I know where to go!"

"But..."

"Hayden, I'll really be fine. Go, enjoy your first day at work!" As quickly as I could, I jumped into the driver's place, and shut the door closed behind myself. It was more than probable that she would try to persuade me to go with her, if I hadn't done so. So I started the engine, immediately turning the radio on, so there I got no chance to catch any of her protests. I then backed away to the main road, as I slowly drove to the first crossroads in the middle of nothing. I was well aware of that my aunt had to turn left to get to the hospital, while I had to go straight to the city centre.

I checked the right side for any other strangers who might be driving from La Push to Forks at eight in the morning, but none of such appeared. That was why I looked into the backup mirror, suspecting Hayden to look at me from behind. I smiled in the mirror and she sent me an air-kiss.  
Then, I moved forwards. When my yellow Golf was far away enough from her black Audi, I speeded up for the first time properly. Don't think I was a road-pirate – because I wasn't! It was just that... the car literally asked for it.

The road was wide, smooth and far more beautiful than roads in Ireland. It really was a paradise for drivers, even more for those who weren't afraid to go a bit _faster_. Technically, the rules could have been broken, considering that NO ONE was going through La Push, right?

It made sense to me.

When checking the backup mirror, I found out there was a car behind me. That alone shocked me, of course, not to mention that the car brand announced it was a _Mercedes_ ; a beautiful, black Mercedes to be exact, the owner of which must have been a pretty wealthy person. I had no doubt about it. Soon, another expensive car appeared behind the Mercedes, while I found myself wanting to stop my poor Golf right there, run out of it, and plead the drivers to give me a lift to the city centre. I knew I would never see cars like that again (especially not here in Forks), until I'd earn enough money to buy some on my own. Then again, who said I'd EVER earn enough money?

Although I didn't want to do it, I flickered twice, in order to let them know they were free to overtake me. It was more than apparent that their cars were capable of going faster than my Golf was, and for that, I had to let them go. The Jeep driver hadn't hesitated to pass around me; in a few seconds, I lost the sight of him. The driver of the Mercedes, on the other hand, did nothing. It was rather creepy, considering that no matter how fast or slow I decided to go, the driver kept his car in a safe distance from my Golf.

With every single mile, I was growing nervous and impatient of the Mercedes' presence, using rudders more and more frequently. I had no idea what his/her problem was, but I needed her/him to overtake me **,** since my hands were sweating and I got the urge to show the driver a lifted middle finger in the mirror.  
Soon though, something highly suspicious happened to me (which I would have never expected to happen on a remote road in the middle of nothing).

A police car appeared on the left side of the road, and before I managed to slow my beautiful Golf down, the policeman had already pulled out a _STOP_ schedule for me.

 _Oh crap. What was I going to do?_


	3. What Alice Found There

**III. What Alice Found There**

 _"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."_  
 _― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland_

* * *

What was wrong with the day? It wasn't somehow special now, was it? It wasn't Friday 13th – that much I knew for sure, so why was everything screwed up since the early morning? At first, this _Sam-call-me-bossy-owner_ guy appeared at Emily's, kicking me out of the house before I managed to finish my breakfast. Now, on my way to school, a policeman stopped me for going too fast in the middle of the wild. What was going to happen next... _Santa's reindeers attack me?_

I stopped the Golf on the edge of the road as I rolled down the window. The policeman must have noticed my desperate sigh because his dark brown eyes softened the moment he looked at my face.

"Good morning, Sheriff," I beeped out quietly, not really looking at him. I felt far too guilty to do so.

" _M'rning_ , _m'rning_ ," he murmured back. "You were driving too fast, ma'am, did you realize that?"

Although I opened my mouth to defend myself, no words escaped it. That was why I simply nodded my head, earning a low scoff from him. "You will have to give me your documents, including driving license and technical data sheet."

Handing him all the necessary documents I remained silent, counting how much the fine was going to cost Hayden. To understand, this wasn't the first time I passed the speed limits; it was the first time I was caught doing so though.  
"I-I was just hurrying to school, Officer. This is my first day and I… didn't want to be late," I blurted out as sincerely as I could. Of course that it was my technical sense that made me go fast, not the need to be at school in time. "Moreover, the car- "

"Chief Swan, good morning," a voice sounded from behind the policeman, and I simply had to move my eyes onto the intruder. Not only that I hadn't noticed someone else being stopped by the police before, neither had I ever heard such a beautiful voice. The moment it reached my ears actually, I felt like throwing all the CDs with _Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's_ music into the rubbish bin, replacing it with a record of this person's voice (so much to my undying love towards _Mendelssohn-Bartholdy_ ). "If I could intervene, it was me who passed the speed limit at first, not her."

"Alice. It's good to see you," the man turned to face her, nodding his head. Wait… _her_. It was a woman, whose name was _Alice_. Oh my, how was it I haven't looked at her yet?  
My jaw literally fell down when I spotted her. She had straight brown hair, cut at the level of her slightly pointed ears. Her small, heart-shaped face, in general, reminded me of a porcelain doll, being pale enough to challenge any average wall. Her aristocratic nose matched her full, pink lips perfectly. The domain of this whole _Alice-woman_ however, was her big, sincere (yet cunning), golden eyes. She was beautiful. No, that was too common word; she was _stunning_. Probably a _Victoria's Secret_ model arranged into Forks to remind me of how ugly and fat I was.

"Pardon her, Chief Swan. She only wanted to… get rid of me." And her voice… _damn_ , was it even possible to become addicted to one's voice?

"That sounds like a valuable excuse," the Sheriff spoke up sarcastically. "Is there something you want to say, Miss Callaghan? Perhaps, admit your fault?"  
I blinked twice, closing my mouth, in order to get myself back into a less embarrassing state. Afterwards, I shook my head instead of telling no and swallowed hard.  
"Very well then," the policeman sighed, frowning down at me. "You can go now, but if I ever spot you driving close to the limits, I will take your license without hesitation. Forks is not Dublin, Miss Callaghan, you will have to get used to it."

"Yes, Sheriff. I will, Sheriff. Thank you very much," my voice came out as a low whisper. I started the engine, yet, didn't let go of the clutch pedal, since I was curious what would happen to the woman who practically saved my ass.

"And you, Alice…" The policeman looked like he wasn't able to decide what to say or do. He had been holding her driving license already and munching it in his hands indecisively **.** In the end, he looked up, giving the documents back to her. "Bella said you two are going shopping today. That's why I was wondering if… i-if you could… just… well… maybe… come from school with Bella, and lend me your car until then? I swear that at four p.m., it will be ready for you two to go to Seattle or… wherever."

He had his back turned to me, so there I didn't know what his face expression was like. I figured out though, that he had been blushing; since Sheriff Swan simply seemed like the type of person who would blush. I got the view of Alice, who, on the other hand, chuckled. The difference between her chuckling and the rest of the world's chuckling was, that it sounded like wedding bells… or, no. _Not wedding bells._ Alice's laughter sounded like drops of water falling all the way down from Salto Angel falls, ultimately shattering against a rock surface. That was what I imagined when Alice chuckled.

"Of course you can have it, Charlie," the woman sang, while she started making quick ballet steps towards my car. "Hello there. Would you mind giving me a lift to school?"

It took me a few moments to figure out that she had been talking to me, because I had _STILL_ been standing there. "Me? Umm… yeah, hop in."

"Great!" Before I managed to notice, she was sitting next to me, on the front passenger's seat. With a wide smile on her face, she waved at the policeman, wishing him a good day. Switching on a winker, I checked my right side correctly. When I assured myself Sheriff Swan saw me (my neck hurt from my overly dogged twisting it to the right) I pulled Golf back onto the road. Since he stopped me, by the way, I drove like a lamb.

"So…" I pronounced carefully, doing my best to keep my eyes on the road, instead of looking at her. "I don't know whether to start with introducing myself, thanking you for saving my driving license, or asking you why on earth you did it." The woman laughed softly, bringing back the picture of waterfalls.

 _No, no, no._ _No freakin' waterfalls, I had to be strong!_

"Let's start with introductions," she sang kindly. "My name is Alice Cullen. And you are Gwyneth Callaghan, right? The newbie from Ireland."

I narrowed my eyes, pretty surprised about her knowledge. "Should I ask where you have that from?"

"Gossip is a contagious disease of each and every small town," Alice shrugged her shoulders innocently.

"There's always a way not to get involved in it,," murmuring rather stubbornly, I slowed the car down, turning left and rolling it on the school parking driveway. Alice, nevertheless, happily ignored my negativity (honestly, I wasn't even sure if she heard me and if she did, it certainly didn't look like that).

"Oh my, I have never been to Ireland! You have to tell me everything about it! I want to know of its nature, customs, culture, food – shortly everything. It has to be so beautiful!"

"Indeed it is," I sighed softly over the memory of Dublin.

"Fine, count on you for the lunch! Don't hesitate to go straight to our table," Alice opened the door, for that, I had to step on the brake, in order to stop the car properly.  
Shit. She managed to avoid the topic I wanted to discuss just like that… _Would you believe it?!_

"B-but… wait, Alice, why – " I tried to stop her. _God knows I did._ But all of my efforts apparently failed.

"See you at lunch, Gwyn, enjoy the lessons!" I hadn't even manage to blink once, and she had already been out of my sight. I concluded there was no hope for me to get all the well-deserved information I needed. People owed me explanations – plenty of them, actually – which forced me to make a decision: _I was going to start being more adamant about getting what I wanted._

Frowning, I parked my Golf next to a huge, orange Chevy, since there was no other place on the parking than that one. I decided to thank the heavens for that the Golf I owned wasn't the cheapest car in here, as well as it wasn't the most expensive one.

Peripherally, I spotted the Jeep similar to the one from the road in the middle of a forest. And right then – after what felt like eternity – things started making sense to me. The driver of the Jeep must have been somehow related to the driver of the Mercedes (Alice). " _Somehow related_ " obviously meant they had to live with each other, near to each other, or next to each other, for as much as they were using the same road as I was (and I was sure there was only one asphalt road leading out of the woods).

Naturally, amount of new questions started to claw onto the surface of my mind. Suddenly, I found myself in the position of _Alice_ , who had just fallen through a _damned_ rabbit hole, landed on a hard ground, and started dealing with a philosophical reflection on how to stand up without bumping her head in the ceiling. Fortunately, I didn't feel like crying so far. Shouting angrily – yes, yelling in doldrums – why not, screaming desperately – maybe. But not crying.

 _Screw it, I wasn't any goddamned Alice and this wasn't a stupid Wonderland!_


	4. Chemistry

_**III. Chemistry**_

 _"For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind." - Ralph Waldo Emerson_

Alice was intoxicating. No matter how much I wanted to get her out of my head, I couldn't. The golden eyes of hers - it took me a while to conclude that it must have been some kind of a strange mutation, since it wasn't the contact lenses. My aunt had been using lenses since three years ago, and I'm sure Alice's eyes didn't look like that at all.  
Her heavenly, exalting voice... oh my, with the memory, I felt like having withdrawal symptoms. Well, most probably, meeting another person with voice as angelic as Alice's, at the first lesson of mine wasn't helping either; but it wasn't in my powers to change that now, was it?  
The moment I recieved my schedule from the chubby lady in an office as small as my "new" room at _Emily's_ , my eyes automatically searched for the Chemistry. To understand, Chemistry was the only love of my life. I adored the subject - experimenting with various liquids, powders, searching for cellulose, starch, proving the presence of glucose, and much more. Everything had its sense, its logical reasoning. There weren't any stupid exceptions to the rules in Chemistry, as in normal life - no; there were only the strict, merciless rules. So, yeah, Chemistry was simply a paradise on Earth for me.

"Good morning, class," the teacher - an asian woman in her early 30's - welcomed us in the laboratory. "This subject is elective, for that I expect you to do your best. Those of you who have signed up for Analytical Chemistry will obviously need the knowledge in the future; or are self-murderers, since Analytics definitely isn't a walk through rosy garden."

The woman managed to summarize the subject and her expectations in two sentences and for that, I was slowly starting to like her. "My name is _Irene Gao_. I will be your teacher for at least this year. Now, each of you will come to me and choose a topic for your essay. The essays will be the result of your year work, so I recommend you to prepare yourselves well."  
After that, the class errupted into wide whisper. I felt a urge to start biting my nails for obviously the same reason as the rest of the class started chatting - nervousness. The girl next to me though - unlike the rest of us, normal, deprivated students - snorted, shut her exercise-book closed and then, turned her head away from the teacher to watch out of the window. Her reaction made me wonder, how was it that she wasn't nervous. It made me curious enough to look at her even.

Immediately, I started to regret the decision. Mainly since my temporary neighbor was as beautiful as Alice was. Uhm, nope, that wasn't quite the right definition. Remember when I said that Alice was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen? Then forget it. _This girl_ was definitely the most beautiful one, and I had slowly started doubting my sexual preference. Until now, I thought I had been a strict heterosexual, however, if this particular girl asked me to do _any lasciviousness_ with her, I wouldn't refuse (although I'd do with Alice as well, for that matter).

" _Miss Hale_ ," the professor sighed wearily, pulling me out of the chain of thoughts. _Thanks god for that anyways._ "Do you have any objections to the work assignment?"

And obviously, I wasn't the only one who noticed the girl's actions either. My neighbor turned her head back, to look at the teacher, her emotions obviously struggling among themselves, letting her surroundings know that she was trying to avoid any other expressions of contempt. In the end, her "good" self obviously won the fight, yet the girl rolled her eyes.  
"Of course I don't," she retorted sharply.

"Marvelous," professor Gao smiled at her as sincerely as she could, then pulled out paper cards in various colours - blue, green, black and red. She arranged them on the table, letting us adjust to the colours. "These are the topics of your essays. Red colour means a part of the _Atom Structure_. Black means a particular group of elements from the P _eriodic system of the Elements;_ green is the theory of _Organic Chemistry_ and blue means your favorite _Nomenclature_. You will come to me, announce the colour you've chosen. I'll pull out one card for you then. Understood?"

No one replied, so the professor remarked something about the silence meaning yes. " _Aldridge, Victor!_ " She called and a boy from the first row walked over to her. He chose black colour, as far as I remember. Since then, I stopped paying attention. My eyes spontaneously moved to the girl next to me, as I observed her features once again.  
She had a long, dense, straight, blonde hair, which looked like it was made of silk or satin, even though a poor light of the cheapest saving-energy bulb in the classroom had been reflecting itself on it. Her skin was pale and absolutely perfect, not carrying any trace of acne or other signs of puberty, although I hadn't noticed the use of make-up. Her features were perfect, angelic, stunning - in this point, I'd leave the rest to your imagination. What captured my eyes though, were her eyes. Once again, they had the colour of melting gold; in this girl's case, they were a bit darker than Alice's irises were, but that was just a slight difference.

The moment I opened my mouth to ask her, if she was somehow related to Alice, the teacher called my name and so there, I had to leave my desk. To set the record straight, _I did so reluctantly._

"Miss Callaghan," the professor looked at me in expectation. "I was told you're new. Welcome to Forks."

"Umm... thank you, professor," I replied hesitantly, she nodded.

"Did you have Analytical Chemistry back at your last school?"

"Yes, in Dublin, I passed a one-year-long seminar," my response was followed with a few sounds from the class, and my eyes automatically found their way to my desk. I found my unbelievably beautiful neighbor turning around, speaking to someone behind her, whom I hadn't gotten the chance to spot, since his/her face was in alignment of her big-volumed, blonde head. I wondered who it was she had been talking to, directing my eyes back to the teacher.

"Great," the woman smiled at me. "Now, what colour would you like to choose?"

"Blue," I said firmly, while professor Gao blinked twice.

"Excuse me, Miss Callaghan, do you really want the _Nomenclature_? Voluntarily?" She was obviously surprised with my choice of topic, but I couldn't care less. To justify my choice of topic, Nomenclature was the easiest of all the four topics for me. It was all about learning the principle, having a book of _Mathematical, physical and chemical tables_ at hand, and using the principle and Tables to deal with the instance. _Nomenclature_ was logical, while I preferred logic to cramming.

"Yes, is there any problem with it?"

"Oh no, dear! It's just that... the students would usually do anything to avoid it," she reasoned, however, stretched her hand to the blue pile and pulled a card out of it. She read the inscription quickly, frowning a bit. After writing down into her list, she handed the card to me. It had an inscription _"INORGANICS"_ on it, which made me sigh. Inorganics wasn't the topic of my dreams. I couldn't see how it would help me with the entrance exams for Pharmacy - the faculty I wanted to go to after college - for that matter, the Organics nomenclature would have been better for me.

"Miss Callaghan, are you satisfied with the topic?" The woman asked, concerned. I nodded quickly, not wanting to bother her: "I am, professor. Thank you."

"All right then. If there's something you'll need me to explain or clarify, come to my office at the consultation hours." Lifting the corners of my lips up softly, I turned to leave for my desk. "Oh, and Miss Callaghan!" I turned around to look at her. She beckoned at me. "I've noticed you've chosen the seat next to Miss Hale, which is a rather... brave move. If I may advice you, don't let her destroy your day."

I'd bet my face turned into its confused form. According to what happened at the beginning of the lesson, it seemed rather natural that the professor didn't like her. But to warn me about it in front of the whole class? It wasn't polite; moreover, my neighbor could have heard her! Well, the truth was that she couldn't _,_ since the classroom was huge and our desk was at its back. _Good_. At least something was safe.

"Umm... hello," I greeted her for the second time this morning, hoping to plant an unconstrained conversation. She hadn't even looked at me.  
"I'm Gwyneth, just in case you would need to talk to me," this time, my tone of voice was more ironical. Still, there came no reaction from her. I breathed in deeply, to continue.  
"Alright, before I manage to completely embarass myself, I must ask you one thing. Are you related to-"

" _Hale, Rosalie,_ " the teacher called out, and the blonde-haired girl stood up. Once again, she hadn't given me a single look (nor an answer to my question), passing around me to the aisle and walking to the professor's desk.  
My curiousity forced me to check what colour she picked up. Right then though, I realized I hadn't my distance glasses on yet, therefore I had to narrow my eyes to see the colour she was choosing. And if I wasn't mistaken, it was the blue pile. Blue meant the Nomenclature... _Coincidence? I think not._

After Hale sat down on her seat, she turned around, swinging back on her chair. "What a huge surprise, I got the Organics again! I swear, Gao is doing this to me on purpose," she told the person behind us morosely. Whoever it was sitting behind, he chuckled softly, instead of making a proper response. I wished to turn around and murder the person who chuckled at her choice of topic with my glare, but I knew it would be highly impolite. For that, I remained in my original position, feeling the anger at her spoiledness grow inside chest.

I considered myself to be a phlegmatic person, however, their behaviour was undoubtfully awful. Who was she to sneer over _Organics_?! There wasn't any better topic in Chemistry, than the one she managed to pick up. I knew that, the professor knew that, everyone in their right mind knew that. Besides the blonde cow, who was sitting right next to me.  
I grabbed a random book, in order to occupy my hands with something else than drumming against the desk in anger.

 _Where the hell was the justice when I needed it?!_

Suddenly, something strange happened though. You know the moment, when you order your brain to calm down, yet you cannot get rid of the tense feeling in the pit of your stomach? Well, _this_ felt like its exact opposite. I discovered an odd feeling of serenity in my stomach. My brain felt the anger at Hale in its full power, however, my body was slowly adjusting to the peaceful _nothing_ that stemmed in my belly. It was something I had never felt before, which was pretty creepy. I thought I was well aware of my reactions to various incentives, after nineteen years of life. Obviously, I was mistaken.

The bell rang and I grabbed my bag, walking out of the classroom as quickly as I could. I had packed my things long before it rang, so there, I was free to run away from all the negative aspects this class was reason to as the first one. My murderous walking pace hadn't slowed down, until I bumped into someone.

 _Or something_? Yeah, _it_ must have been something. _It_ was, after all, as hard as a wall.


	5. Leprechaun

_**IV. Leprechaun**_

 _Ah! Try as they will, and try as they might, who steals me gold won't live through the night." - Mark Jones_

 _Oh my._ Was I really buried in my thoughts deep enough to bump into a wall? I mean... bumping into a hot, male nerd, who'd have had his nose stuck in a book - that was one of the brighter options. He would eventually turn out into being a kind, sweet and smart person, and we would live happily ever after. But a wall? _Really_?! What was I supposed to do with a wall?

 _"Oh!"_ I huffed, my hand firing up to my forehead, where there would certainly appear a huge bruise from the impact sooner or later. Taking my time, I checked on the Chemistry textbook in my arms. It was still there, however, the pencilcase of mine fell down to the floor; all of the writing supplies started rolling across the floor naturally, to practically all directions. The whole incident left me praying for nobody's having spotted me.

 _Great. This goddammed day simply couldn't have been better. Wait, have I mentioned it started raining two seconds ago?_

Suddenly, someone cleared his throat, towering over me, taking the most precious light of the shitty, cheap bulb away from me. How did I know it was _him_ , not _her_? Well, there was a shadow of man's silhouette on the floor, spreading right in front of my eyes. For a woman, the silhoutte was too wide-shouldered, although he barely reached the height, which boys (or rather young men) of my age had the habit to grow into lately. I frowned and lifted my head to look up at the person. I was quite determined to send him to hell for stealing the only source of light from me, since it was obvious, that without the light, I was absolutely unable to pick all my pens, pencils and highlighters together.

"Will you be so kind and step away? I'd like to collect my writing stuff." I snapped out through gritted teeth, while lifting my chin to look up at the thief of the light. It was an asian boy, who couldn't have been older than me. He had a cinnamon-toned skin, black hair, dark brown eyes and - wait for the best - he wasn't ridiculously good looking. _Really_. It was a pleasant change to see someone, who suffered from acne even more than I did. That alone should have made me like him, yet, I was far too upset about the blonde bitch from Chemistry to act polite right then.

"Sure... uhm... hey," the boy blurted out nervously. "I'm Eric Yorkie, and you must be the new Irish chick."

"At first, never call me _chick_ ever again. Second, even if I was, it would depend on what you want." My pencils were back in the case, for that, there was no reason for me to dwell in the corridor any longer. The other pre-planned destination of mine was the gym (where I was going to have a PE lesson) about which I had no idea where it was. _Damn_ , I didn't like this Eric guy, I couldn't ask him for help.

"Whoa! Grumpy Irish girl actually got a sense of humor!" He poked me into the shoulder, while I tried to kill him with one of my most murderous glares. "Alright, that was across the line. I get it and am sorry about it. I-I was just wondering if... perhaps, you could answer me a few questions? About Ireland, I mean. And a few about you as well. I'm writing into the school newspaper and so there... it occured to me as a good idea. So..."

I grimaced acidly, about to send him to hell (this time for real), when a realization hit me. He wanted answers, I wanted to find the gym. Good opportunity to do him a favor, get what I wanted and in the same time, not to owe him anything.  
"I will do it."

"You... pardon, _you_ will?" He asked in disbelief, obviously not being prepared to get a positive reply. I could have pictured that majority of new people kept rejecting him. "That's great! What about my picking you up on Saturday, at eight? Just leave me your address and-"

"No way!" I snapped at him, making my way past his tall, yet skinny figure. "You'll show me way to the gym, I'll answer your questions - wherever I want, whenever I want. That's where our relations end - take it or leave it."

"Alright, your way is perfectly fine with me as well," the smile he gave me then, was immense. It was more than obvious that he wasn't even slightly embarassed about his sneaky, impolite suggestion. Eric - or what was his name - apparently fancied using the mathod of trial and error with every girl (if I was right in this one, _God stand by him)_.  
"So... did you have a boyfriend back in Ire-"

"No questions," I countered stubbornly.

Eric threw his hands up in defence. "Oh come on! You've just agreed to answer them!"

"This isn't the right time nor the right topic. If you need to socialize, talk about weather," hissing angrily, I prepared myself for snapping at Eric to forget about the interview (or whatever), that I'd find the gym by myself. In an instant nevertheless, something weird happened. To my mood, to be completely honest; once again - I had to admit things of the kind were tending to scare me.

Suddenly, I felt completely well - both in mind and physically. All the rage somehow passed away, and I could no longer bring myself to be angry. It was very confusing, trust me. In one moment, I felt as if I'd jump out of my skin, while in the next second, everything was so _fuck'n_ peaceful.  
I knew I should have felt terrified about it, but I simply _wasn't able_ to manage that. Not that I didn't want to - I was just unable to bring the damned center of emotion in my brain to become freaking alarmed about what was happening in here.

 _God, was I losing controll over my own brain?!_

"Hold on," I called out to no one in particular; Eric, unfortunately, decided to stop walking, turn around and grace me with a _what-the-hell-is-going-on_ sort of glare. I was going to roll my eyes, when I spotted it. Or should I rather say _him_?

It was a young man, who might have been as old as I was, perhaps slightly younger. He was leaning against a wall, not far away from us, watching me (or Eric) with a slight hint of amusement, according to the corners of his narrow, pink lips having been turned up slightly. I couldn't be sure about his humor however, since I was standing too far to get a glimpse of his eyes. I'd bet they contained the so called "spark of entertainment" though.

The point is, that he was far too handsome for my liking. Don't get me wrong - I did like how he looked, too much even; goodness, I wasn't a piece of stone! Of course that the combination of his slightly longer, blonde hair, angelic face and fit body turned me on.

"Are you alright, _Leprechaun_?" Luckily, there was still Eric standing next to me, distracting my thoughts rather effectively, by calling me... _well, you know_.

" _Leprechaun_?! Really?" I hadn't really gotten my eyes out of the hot guy across from us. Why would I? The view was beautiful and he couldn't have heard me, for standing far, anyways. "Do you even know what that means?"

"I have no idea, but it's Irish, isn't it?" Eric rubbed the back of his neck uneasily, shrugging his shoulders.

I sighed deeply. "Yeah... you know what? I wish you would leave me right here, get lost, disappear from my sight for the rest of the school year, or run away any time you'll se me. Choose one of those and I may start to like you."

Eric was hesitant for a moment, then he laughed shortly. "Ha! You don't really... mean that one, right?"

It took me all I had to take my eyes away from the sex idol at the wall, and force myself into creating a fake smile. My god, if only this git hadn't seen my bumping into that stupid wall! My life would have been so much easier by now! "Of course not! It was just a joke!" I wrinkled my nose, slapping him on a shoulder playfully. "The goddamned wall is my witness."

"Eh... what wall?" The Asian boy asked, confused.

"The one I bumped into, obviously."

"Y-you bumped into a... a wall?!" He forced out among waves of laughter. "Oh Gosh, that's funny!"

 _All right._ He had been there, when the most embarrassing thing in my high school life happened. And although I really didn't like this Eric guy, I didn't think he was _that_ stupid...

"Yes, I did and you saw it!" I snapped at him. "You know, when I dropped the pencilcase... and you took the light away from me."

"Uhm, sure... what drugs are you using, _Irish_? _'Cause_ I'm pretty sure there was no wall when I saw you for the first time," he said, "You bumped into a guy - _Cullen,_ or the other weirdo who hangs with them, I guess."

 _Well, it was the right time for me to start suspecting, that not everything might eventually be all right._


	6. Volleyball and Lunch

_**V. Volleyball and Lunch**_

 _"Few people when meet first time they feel that meeting each other was the purpose of their life." - Amit Kalantri_

The PE lesson was as awful as lessons of its kind had always been. We were playing volleyball, which obviously wasn't the worst sport on the planet. I, however, always saw the ball as a threat rather than the object of the game. For that, my playing style naturally wasn't an admirable one (neither it was something I would be proud of), as I had the habit of throwing my arms up into the air senselessly, hitting the ball every now and then. It hadn't always flown in the direction I wanted it to fly in, but during all those years, I learnt to live with that.  
Fortunately, I wasn't the worst player of my PE group. There was another girl, called Angela, whom I kept sticking to the whole lesson. This would probably sound mean, but I had never seen someone playing as badly as Angela did. She was trying - she really was. Every time she put her hands up to recieve a pass though, the ball lent directly on the top of her head. In entire 45 minutes of the lesson, Angela hit the ball once. Her art of clumsiness was truly admirable.

Miraculously, God sent us help just in time for our team to rise from the ash. _No, that wasn't an irony..._  
There was another group of girls, who chose to play basketball in the beginning of the lesson. Their coach - seeing how absolutely incompetent we were, playing volleyball - decided to send us help. And the help was nobody else, than _Alice Cullen_.

"Hiya there, girls!" Alice sang cheerfully. "Need help?"  
The rest of the team breathed out their agreements, before I managed to get back to reality from drowning in the pool of absolute delight of Alice's extremely melodic voice.  
"That depends," I mocked and she lifted her eyebrows. "Do you know the text of _Zerlina's_ part from _Mozart's Don Giovanni_?"

"Of course I do. It is the most beautiful aria of the opera." The petite, dark-haired girl answered immediately. For some unknown reason, she made the easy reply sound as if there was some genuinely hidden sense behind it.

"See? I think so," I admitted truthfully. "Will you sing it to me every night, for the rest of my life?"

She laughed, standing onto a free spot next to me, in front of the net. "I would love to, although I'm not sure what connection does _Don Giovanni_ have to volleyball. Neither do I trust my singing skills enough."

"Wait, you're kidding, Alice, right?" It was the first time I called her by her name. The bad part about it was, that I frowned at her while doing so. "Have you ever heard yourself? Your voice is amazing! Come on, Angela, support me!"

"In fact, I don't know why she chose only just your voice to drool over. You and your siblings _all_ look absolutely amazing! I cannot believe that you're staying in Forks. How is that they haven't offered you a job in some modeling agency yet? I mean, you should definitely start..." Angela started babbling, so there, I rolled my eyes and interrupted her speech.

"That's not what I meant, but... I guess you got the point." I turned my head to Alice, finding out that she started chuckling a while ago. "What are you laughing at? Should I take it as yes?"

Alice hadn't gotten a chance to answer. Right then, out of nothing, there came the ball. It was directed at Alice, therefore, the whole team almost stopped breathing, when its surface connected with Alice's fingertips. We all watched her, as she sent the ball flying over the net, to the opponent's pitch. When it lended on the floor then, it was the most amazing feeling in the world. We all started cheering, laughing and pronouncing Alice's name again and again. It was just one point for our team, but it was still _the only point_ we had, against the _fifteen points_ of the other team. And not only that Alice managed to deal with the ball, she was the only reason why we made this particular _one_ point.

"Callaghan, Weber, Cullen! Stop shouting and get back to game!" The coach - Ms. Smith - wasn't the ideal image of a kind woman. But then again, was there even a PE teacher who was kind on the planet? We all murmured our quiet apologies and did as she said.

After the PE lesson had finished, it was lunch time. I was going to join Angela on her way to the school canteen, however, she got lost from the lockers as quickly as the morning mist, while I wasn't sure how to get there. For a moment, it occured to me as a good idea, to follow some of the girls from the volleyball team. Fortunately, I hadn't gotten enough time to start acting creepy, because Alice caught me right in front of the lockers just in time.

"Gwyn! We're having a lunch together, remember? Come, I can't wait to introduce you to my siblings," the brunette exclaimed, entangling her arm with mine. I - being the careful me - hesitated though.

"Alice, hold on for a sec," I sighed. " We should... perhaps, this is not a good idea. I-I mean no offence, it's just that... I'm not good at these _social things_ , you know? Like family meetings, having lunch together with other people and... so on."

"That's a nonsense! They are all nice people, you will like them, I'm sure!"

"Yeah... and what if they won't like me?" My question sounded more nervous than I expected it to sound.

Alice stopped walking suddenly, turning to me. She then squeezed my shoulders, looking straight into my eyes (or soul, I wasn't sure about that one) and smiled at me reassuringly. " _Honey_ , they will love you. Now, would you stop worrying, if I told you that I'll sing for you?"

My eyes widened, as the girl's expression turned into a grin. "Really? Every day?!"

"No, three times a week, no weekends. I have to do my school work some time," the brunette started to negotiate, which made me pouch my lips.

"Alright. But I want you to read detective books to me once a week. I like _Smoke and Mirrors_ by _Elly Griffiths_ , _The Name of The Rose_ by _Umberto Eco_ and all the books by _Jonas Jonasson_ or _Markus Zusak_."

"Deal," Alice shrugged her shoulders, giving me a small smile. "So... are you willing to meet my family now?"

I smirked at her, imitating her previous attempt to entangle our arms. "Where's their table?"

We reached the particular part of the canteen after bare two minutes of walking, during which we were talking about our favorite books, subjects and movies. Alice let me pick up my lunch (she didn't want to eat anything - that made me wonder how someone could resist the smell of beef on herbs with mashed potatoes), salad and drink (again, Alice hadn't taken anything), before she directed me to the furthest table at the window. While walking with the tray in my hands, my entire attention was imprisoned by the tray, in order not to embarrass myself again, with, for example, dropping the tray to the floor.  
The moment Alice told me we were there, I started to regret my decision not to look around; because if I had done so, I wouldn't have been so surprised by the presence of four other, completely divine people. I mean, meeting one top model at time - why not. But meeting five of them, in the same small town, in the same small state, somewhere in the North of the USA? No, there must have been some tax allowances in Washington (or particularly in Forks) for world's most beautiful models, since I couldn't imagine any other way how all these stunning people with golden eyes could have chosen this Northern hollow to live in.

"Guys, this is Gwyneth Callaghan, the new student from Ireland. We met this morning, on the-"

"On the way to school! Alice... uhm... got me out of some trouble with mud." I jumped into her speech, not wanting her to tell them what were the exact circumstances of our meeting. They all glanced at me with a hint of amusement; one of them - a _bronze-haired boy_ \- hadn't even tried to cover his smirk though.

"Apparently, Alice wasn't the only inhabitant of Forks she met this morning," the same, ridiculously handsome guy with slightly ginger hair, and a petite brunette sitting next to him, stated, as if he knew what really happened in the morning. I narrowed my eyes at him.

" _Edward!_ " the brunette by his side admonished, poking him with her elbow. She then looked at me, lifting the corners of her lips up slightly. "Sorry about him... I'm _Bella Swan_ , by the way; it's nice to meet you Gwyneth."

I smiled back at her the best I could, before my eyes landed on the sassy blonde girl whom I had already had the pleasure with, in the Chemistry. When my eyes met hers, her face expression turned into ice. She drummed her long nails against the desk of the table, before she snorted scornfully and looked away. _That bitch._

"Welcome to Forks, Gwyn! I'm _Emmett Cullen_ and this is _Rose_." A huge, muscular, young man with short hair gifted me with a wide, sincere smile, waving at me with one of his big palms.

" _Rosalie!_ " The blonde hissed virulently. "My name is Rosalie, especially for those whom I _don't know_."

"We've already met," I ignored her tone, creating the biggest, false smile I was capable of. "Chemistry, remember? You picked _Organics_ and weren't too happy about it. Well, just to let you know, I have _Inorganics_."

The notice of Rosalie's furious glare satisfied me; if she was going to act like a bitch to me, I wasn't going to leave it without a response. I might not be as skilled in acting like a bitch as she was, still I'd try to do my best.  
My eyes shifted to the last person at the table. And here he was - the sex idol of all sane women, the man of my dirtiest dreams. I should probably mention that it was the same, honey blonde-haired guy who observed me in the corridor, when I had been talking to Eric. It took me a few minutes to collect myself, in order not to stare at him like a dumb teenage girl... _again_.

"Uhm... hello there," I blurted out, shifting in discomfort, as his eyes bored into mine. I would certainly have melted, if only he hadn't moved his attention away from me, towards Alice, to whom he had stretched his hand. Alice smiled quizzically, while he pulled her onto his lap. The two of them kissed slightly, meanwhile I felt a nagging urge to grimace.  
The guy, whom Bella had introduced as Edward, peered at me strangely, as if he knew what was going on in my head. And since there wasn't anyone else for me to frown at (besides Rosalie, who started ignoring me a while ago), I frowned at Edward. He then cleared his throat, interrupting Alice and... _oh gosh, I didn't even know what his name was!_

"Hey, leave it for home you two! We have a guest," Emmett exclaimed, gesturing for me to sit next to him. "Come on, _Bubble_ , take a seat!"

"Erm... excuse us," Alice blinked twice, the moment she managed to pull herself away from her boyfriend or... _whatever_. "Gwyn, I want you to meet _Jasper Hale_ , my... boyfriend. He is Rosalie's twin brother."

My eyebrow fired up. " _Oh,_ " I forced out, taking the seat next to Emmett. "Well, you two don't look like twins. And it's nice to meet ya, Jasper."

"We've been told so," he said, adding quickly, "the pleasure is on my side, ma'am."  
There was an apparent accent in his English, which, unfortunately, I wasn't able to place. I thought it may be Australian, or something like that, but I wasn't sure. Nevertheless, one thing was certain - Rosalie didn't have the same accent, which was rather weird, considering the two of them were twins.


	7. Dangerous Pollen

**VI. Dangerous Pollen**

„ _Pollen is essentially 'plant sperm'. Therefore, this makes Hay Fever an STD. And since no one voluntarily intakes pollen, I have concluded, we are all being raped by plants."_

I was about to return to our provisory home, after the school had finished. My Golf had been standing quietly in the carpark behind the school, under some tree, the branches of which provided pleasant shadows to it. The first second I came near to the piece of flora, however, a loud sneeze defeated me, closely followed by loads of others. In the end, I wasn't able to see anything through the veil of tears; my eyes burned, while my nose wouldn't stop running. Luckily, there was a random handkerchief in the pocket of my jacket, which was pulled out by me and used feverishly enough to end up as wet as a fish. I would rather not speak about my futile attempts to find the keys of my poor, little Golf in the bag of mine, not to mention searching for the right key among the others. That was literally mission impossible...  
It was my fault though. This mess I happened to appear in was the matter of my rashness. Did I mention I was allergic to the pollen of certain flowers? No? _Well, here you have it._ On my defence, I have to say there weren't any trees on the list of plants I had been allergic to. At least, not until then.

I gasped for air, feeling a strong pressure inside my chest. It was as if my lungs had bloated, and were currently trying to force their way out of my chest. It took next few seconds for my head to start spinning uncontrollably; afterwards, nothing but darkness appeared in front of my eyes. I'm afraid I can't tell you more about what happened that afternoon, because the next thing I remember was Hayden's worried face over my body and the awful smell of some disinfectant.

"Oh, thank god you're awake, Honey, I was so worried!" My aunt jumped onto her feet, squeezing my hand in hers. I wanted to lift up my head, to look around a bit, but a tubule inside my nose stopped me. _Please, just don't tell me, that the lack of my interest in the trees I had been parking my car under, brought me into a hospital... please, please, please!_

"W-where am I?" I whispered huskily. "What happened?"

"You're in the hospital, _Sweetheart_. You suffered from a severe allergic reaction to the pollen of _elm_. We were told _elm_ was the tree your car had been standing under," she said, pressing her fingers to the sides of my neck, then shining a light into my eyes and ordering me to open my mouth. I guess it was a medical inspection.

"How long have I been... _out_?"

"For two and half hours since _Alice Cullen_ brought you to the hospital," Hayden was probably going to say something more, yet, I interrupted her.

" _Alice Cullen_? Wait, what exactly did _she_ do?" The question of mine was more curious than anything else.

"She found you, lying next to your car. If it wasn't for her, I don't know if you'd manage to get to the hospital in time," Hayden answered sadly. It was apparent that she was trying to supress the tears really hard. In the end, nevertheless, she managed to lift the corners of her lips up little bit, in somewhat supportive smile. "You can ask her yourself, if you want. She's been here for all the time, waiting for you to wake up."

I shifted uncofortably, my hands subconsciously firing up, to my hair. I tried to sleek the bunch of mess on my head slightly, before Hayden would let one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen in. "Erm... really? How do I look?"

Hayden smirked at me, crossing her arms over her chest. " _Sweetie_ , how do you think a person, who woke up only a few minutes ago, after nearly three hours of deep sleep, could look?"

" _Terrible_? _Awful, sleepy, appalling, hideous, dead,_ -"

"Alright, it was supposed to be a joke! You look as lovely as ever," my aunt tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. She then walked over to the door, while I kept drumming my fingers against the washed-out fabric of the blanket. It wasn't helping, just to let you know.  
"And Gwyn," the blonde called, therefore, I looked up at her. "I'm glad you've found such a good friend already."

Hayden winked at me, disappearing behind the door. I wasn't left alone for too long though, mainly because my aunt was replaced by the presence of the pixie-like, petite brunette, whom I was starting to adore slowly. Even though she was dating the guy I had clearly been attracted to... To hell with boys! _What did we - independent women - even need them for?_

"Hello there, _Honey_ ," Alice's lips widened the moment she spotted me, for that, I smiled back at her. "How are you feeling?"

"Not that bad. Well... better than when I ate walnuts, before they found out I'm allergic to them," I shrugged, as the brunette chuckled quietly.  
"Here, take a seat." Gesturing to the chair next to my bed, I waited for her to settle down. I noticed that her eyes got a darker shade of golden color, than they had had in the morning; and I would have preoccupied myself with that, if I hadn't considered it to be a stupidity to think about, after she saved my life. That was why I let it go.  
What I couldn't have let go, however, was the fact, that Alice seemed worried, or... _uncomfortable_ even. She agreed to sit next to my bed, yet, kept at least five feet distance from me. As if I was _contagious_.

"I am really happy to hear that," she reached for my hand, but stopped herself just in the middle of the movement. _Alright_ , that was far from the normal state of her behaviour, for as much as I could tell. "I-I... I'm sorry! I didn't want to-"

"What on Earth are you sorry for, Alice?" I asked, surprised. "You saved my life! There's no way I could ever repay you for that."

"In fact, Gwyn, it wasn't me who found you in the carpark. All credit goes to Jasper, he gave you the first aid. I just... drove you to the hospital."

"Oh," I exhaled, biting on my lower lip. That information wasn't helping me to forget about him. "Well, thank you for telling me, but that doesn't change anything on that you got me to the hospital in time. My aunt said it was crucial."

Alice forced out a small smile, then rubbed her hands against each other nervously. "Carlisle - my adoptive father - told me your aunt started working in here today. He's a surgeon as well - isn't that a pleasant coincidence?"

"I guess so... Listen, Alice, I would really like to thank Jasper for what he did in person. Do you think you could tell him to... I don't know, stop by some time tomorrow, perhaps?"

The brunette swallowed hard, as she stared at me absentmindedly. I wasn't sure what exactly she had been staring at, but the point of her attention weren't my eyes. My hand automatically lifted to my chest, which was the next, most popular place for people to stare at. But that wasn't the thing either. After a few moments, I figured that Alice was staring at my neck. I had no idea why, naturally, and the lustful look of her dark eyes was honestly scaring me.

"A-Alice, what's wrong?" I cleared my throat, moving my hand in front of her eyes. She blinked for a few times, her pupils widening, as she looked back up at me. This time, it was the real, unique, unreplaceable me she was looking at; not my neck.

"E-excuse me?" The brunette blurted out, bringing her melodic voice back. "My apologies, I got stuck up in my thoughts for a moment. What did you say?"

"Oh, nothing. It was a bad idea anyways," I shook my head. "Look, it's getting late, you seem tired. I think you should go home and take some rest. Today was a hell of a day."

"I... I suppose you're right." After that, Alice got up rather sternly, not saying another word. She rushed to the door as quickly as a flesh, and before I noticed, she opened it.

" _Alice_!" I called after her, making her flinch. "I'm sorry for any trouble I caused to you and your family."

She nodded once, leaving me alone, in the small hospital room. The way she acted made me wonder, what did I do wrong? Did my telling her to take Jasper with her to visite me, offend her? Even though it definitely was an option, I wouldn't put much chance on it. Her mind seemed to be absent ever since she had come in. No, there must have been something else going on with her.

 _And that was the moment I decided to stick my nose into the Cullen family for the first time._


	8. Yellow Roses

**VII. Yellow Roses**

 _"I hate roses. Don't you? It's all right if you can hide them in a cutting garden, but I think a rose garden is the height of ick."_ \- Cy Twombly

The medical inspection had taken place in the morning, during which I had been told I could go home. Hayden was called to a severe gastric surgery for an instance, therefore, she couldn't give me a lift home. She insisted on my calling one of my friends - preferably Alice - to drive me back nevertheless. When I told her Alice wasn't the person I'd call, my aunt was suspicious. Eventually, I talked some sense into her, lying about how shocked Alice had been, when she had found me yesterday. It worked, and soon, I was free to call Angela.

" _Yes?"_ Her voice sounded even more piping on the phone.

"Hey, Angela. It's me, Gwyneth."

" _Oh my God, Gwyn! We were told what happened to you yesterday. Are you all right?_ " She asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I am now. Thanks for asking."

" _Sweetie, any time,_ " she exhaled, relieved. " _Freakin' elm!_ _I thought you might be interested in my having persuaded Eric to go to the headmaster's office and lob for that someone would chop the damned tree down for good."_ __

 _"_ Goodness, youdidn't have to do that! I don't want any of you to get into trouble, you barely know me," I ushered, folding the blouse I had been wearing yesterday, putting it into a bag from the new clothes Hayden brought me in the morning. "Moreover, I hadn't acted the nicest to Eric."

" _He mentioned you were a bit... sharp to him yesterday,_ " Angela admitted. _"But still, I consider you to be my friend, and that is what friends do for each other. You can apologize to Eric later. Now... is there something I can do for you?_ "

Huffing, I took the skirt from yesterday out of the small, plastic wardrobe opposite to my bed. "Actually, there is something I'd be really grateful for. I need to get home somehow. My car is still parked at school, and I'd ask my aunt, but she's stuck up in the operating theatre, so... I figured that - "

" _Oh my, why haven't you said it earlier? Of course I'll drive you home! You just stay in the hospital and relax. I'll be there in a sec!"_

With that, she hung up, before I managed to thank her properly. Despite Angela's having ended the call, I couldn't help but kept staring at the phone screen. If I was being completely honest, the girl's attitude surprised me greatly. We knew each other for less than a day, and she had already risked her post in school for me; which was a pretty strange feeling. It had always been hard for me to find new friends, even back in Dublin, where I spent whole childhood. Searching for people you'd be able to trust enough to let them become your friends, wasn't easy for anyone, I guess; especially not for someone like me - a person with such a cautious personality.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. It was opened anyways, for that, it was just an act of politeness to knock on it. What I saw when looking at the newcomer, surprised me though.

"J-Jasper?" I marveled, trying my best not to let my jaw fall down. I felt like dropping the clothes I had been folding neatly until then to the floor in an instant, then start grooming myself into a more representative and less _look-everyone-I've-just-gotten-out-of-the-hospital_ form nervously. "What.. what are _ya_ doing here?"

"Good afternoon, Gwyneth," his voice came out of his throat in all of its low-pitched glory. _Dammit_ , why did he have sound so hot?! Honestly, I felt safer when he was silent. Not happier, but definitely safer.  
"Alice mentioned you wanted to see me. Forgive me though, if I managed to disturb your phone call."

"It's quite all right, you haven't disturbed anything. And, did she? _Uhm... well_ ," I shifted nervously, attempting to sleek my already tight skirt with my sweating palms. "It's not a big deal, really. It's probably not even worth the miles you had to make to get here. Nevertheless, to stop wasting your time, I-I just wanted to thank you for, you know, finding me and giving me the first aid. It's possible that if it wasn't for you, I would have... suffocated."

I looked up at him, finding out that he had been watching me for all the time of my babbling. Moreover, this was the first time I forced myself to tear my eyes off of his mysterious, golden ones, as my gaze landed on his left hand, which he had been holding a bouquet of yellow roses in.  
At first, it shocked me (in a good way). After all, why would he have brought flowers to the hospital, if he hadn't meant to give them to some patient? Of course, it was very nice to think the lucky person was me. After a few moments, however, I realized that roses were one of the critical plants on the lists of flowers I was allergic to. And with that, my dream of receiving a gift from the hottest guy in school faded away... 

"There is nothing to thank me for, _ma'am_. It was a common, right thing to do. Anyone in my position would have done the same, I'm sure," Jasper lifted the corners of his lips up slightly, bowing his head a bit. Afterwards, he looked at the bouquet in his hand indecisively.

"Not everyone, trust me," I sighed, remembering the moment I had eaten strawberries last year, in a camp in Wicklow mountains. Me and Hayden had been staying there for three days, on last summer holidays. There was plenty of people around, when I became all red and swollen, yet, none of them had an idea about what to do. So there, they started to panick, and in the end, ambulance had to come for me. Yeah, people were terrible, when it came to unpredictable situations...

"Those roses are really beautiful, by the way. Who is the _lucky devil,_ if you don't mind my asking?" I decided to lead the conversation away from my _nearly-death_.

Jasper smiled enigmatically, making two casual steps towards the centre of the room. "In fact, those are for you. I wasn't sure what flowers you liked, therefore..."  
My eyes widened, as he stretched the arm he had been holding the bouquet in, to me. I was more than sure I had been blushing by then, flattered - that, however, hadn't changed anything on the fact I was _freaking_ allergic to _goddammed_ roses.

That was why I made a few quick steps away from the flowers (not from Jasper), covering my nose with the collar of my coat. Jasper frowned for a second (breathing in, most probably to ask what the hell was wrong with me) just before a realization hit him. He opened his mouth to speak once again, but had to exhale once again.  
"Wait, you are not allergic to roses as well, are you?"

I nodded reluctantly, my eyes watching him over the hem of the coat. I hoped he saw all the _"sorry's"_ my glances were supposed to provide.

"Gwyneth," this time, my name sounded as a martyred sigh from him. "I apologize. It hadn't even occured to me, that you'd be... I assume I should have known better."

"It's not your fault, Jasper! You didn't know I was allergic to them."

I tried to prevent him from what he was going to do by catching his forearm. Coming closer to a whole bunch of allergens, nevertheless, wasn't the best thing to do for an allergic person. I started sneezing immediately, as the tears flooded my eyes once again.

"No, it was thoughtless of me to listen to Alice. I-I don't know what got into me. I swear it will not happen again," he stated definitely, while turning on his heel and disappearing from the room. It might have been a cruel thing to say, but the moment he left, my torture was over. The urge to sneeze stopped and soon, my sight cleared.

"Fuck!" I couldn't help myself but cursed loudly. My allergy to roses was an unfortunate coincidence, while I was left to hope that Jasper was aware of that. I hated myself for being allergic to them, since all the boys I had ever had (well, I had one, back in Dublin) always chose them, as a gift. No wonder, by the way. Roses were neutral flowers, a safe bet even - all women liked them. _Besides me._


	9. Friends and Enemies (1)

**VIII. Friends and Enemies: 1/2**

" _I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects."_ \- Oscar Wilde

Throwing all the clothes that were left into the bag on the bed, I grabbed it far too violently. My temper took the best of me - what can I say. On my way through the corridors of the hospital, I came across Angela. She told me she had called me numerous times in last quarter of an hour, however, I hadn't picked it up. And there came the logical question: _Why did I not pick my phone?_

"A... _friend_ came to pay me a visit. Has the information made you any happier?" I asked, fasting the seatbelt on the passenger's seat.

"Not really," Angela shook her head, turning on the ignition. "It will make me happy, if you tell me, if the friend was a girl or a boy, how old she or he was, and if I know him."

"Hey, that's personal!"

"Sure it is. _HIS_ personal information, not yours," the driver shot me a glare in the rearview mirror.  
"Well, is it him then?" I remained silent, which Angela considered to be a yes.  
"Ha, I knew it! Gwyneth, you flirt! It's been bare two days since you moved in, and you've already started to date someone? Who is he?!"

"At first, I'm _not_ dating anybody. Second, he came to see if I was all right, because it was him who found me in the car park yesterday." _It was good like that. So why the hell did I have to continue talking?!_ "And third, it was _Jasper Hale_."

"What?!" Angela slammed on the brakes, stopping the car in the middle of the road. Fortunately, we were somewhere in La Push Nature Reserve by then, where no one else had the urge to drive through. Nevertheless, my head had nearly crushed into the windscreen, with the force of her applying the brakes."Are you kidding me? Jasper _freakin'_ Hale found you?! B-but... he is one of the Cullens!"

"Ugh... so what?!" I lifted one eyebrow impatiently. Angela turned her head sharply, in order to look at me.

"The Cullens are weird! Have you not noticed the strange colour of their eyes, for example?"

"That's probably just some kind of mutation. Half of the population suffers from far stranger anomalities, than golden eyes." I argued, pointing an index finger at myself "Here, there's an exact example sitting next to you. I cannot even come near - for example - roses, without getting as swollen as a hot air balloon."

" _Fine,_ _fine_ ," Angela admitted reluctantly, turning the ignition on once again. "Still though, isn't it strange for all of them to have the same eye colour? If they were regular siblings, then I wouldn't have said a word. But that's not what they are, Gwyn. They're all adopted! Coincidence? I Don't think so!"

A sigh escaped my throat, as I rubbed my eyes. It was apparent what she was suggesting, and I tried really hard to talk myself into my not being interested in the Cullen family. It was too late though. I met them all - some of them were better, some of them worse - from the big man ( _Emmett_ ), through the rude prat ( _Edward),_ kind pixie-like girl ( _Alice_ ), to the blonde cow ( _the name of who I had happily forgotten_ ), and of course, the handsome Greek god ( _Jasper_ ). There was also the random girl - _her surname was Swan_ \- who seemed to be a girlfriend of the rude brat. To be honest, I found a few discrepancies on what the Cullens were doing their best to make the world believe in.

With every thought of the family, the curiosity in the pit of my brain was slowly clambering up the hill.

"What is this all about, Angela? Are you trying to advise me against becoming friends with them?" She remained silent, watching the road in front of her gloomily. So there, I pushed. "Since I told you Jasper found me, you've been acting as if you knew something I don't. So, is there something I need to know about the Cullens?"

The driver twisted the corners of her lips up, unamused. Then, she rolled her car onto the driveway of Emily's B&B, pulled the handbrake up, and turned the angine off. "Remember the brown-haired girl who was sitting with Cullens at lunch? Her name is _Bella Swan_. She moved from Arizona a year ago and started getting along well with them. Until then, the Cullens had been rejecting everyone who tried to talk to them, even for the slightest. Especially Edward - the guy Bella started dating. He had been an exact example of an arrogant jerk."

"He still is a jerk, for as much as I can say," I murmured, only to earn a frown from Angela.

"Don't interrupt me," she snapped out. "Anyways, Bella had been pretty punctual, until she started hanging with Cullen. It's a well-known fact, that the Cullens leave school for a few days every now and then, to spend time doing... _heavens know what_. That wasn't Bella's style though. I mean, she had never missed a class before! In March, however, the Cullens disappeared, but guess what.. Bella went with them!"

I bit the inside of my cheeks, not to hiss at her, how absolutely unimportant Bella Swan's ramblings were to me. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten an opportunity to leave the car, mainly due to Angela's not having been done talking yet.

"It was a terrible time. Strange things were happening in Forks, people were disappearing, being attacked by some animal, or _whatsoever_. We were freaking out about where she was. And so was her father."

"W-wait a sec," I blurted out. "Her father's name is _Charlie_ , isn't it?"

"Well, obviously," Angela tilted her head to a side. " _Charlie Swan_ , he's a Sheriff. Lovely man, by the way."

" _Oh Gosh_..." My right hand lifted to my forehead, as I made a facepalm. Meanwhile, Angela's questioning glance nearly burnt a hole into the side of my face. "I'll explain later. Carry on."

"Alright. We thought the Cullens took her camping with them; yet, when we asked her father, he knew nothing. Two days later, Edward Cullen brought Bella into the hospital, telling Charlie a story about how she fell down from the stairs at their home, and broke her leg. That was a lie, I was at the Cullens' house the day before. It was empty, with no living soul in it," she made a dramatic pause. "And that's it. Whatever business it is they are involved in, it caused Bella a broken bone."

"Wow, that's... _interesting_ ," I forced out a modest smile. "Thank you very much for driving me home. And thanks for telling me all those things, Angela. I do appreciate it."

"Wait!" She exclaimed the moment I opened the door to get out of the car. The demanding tone of her voice got me to turn around. "You're not going to keep distance from them, are you?"

I pouted my lips, shrugging slightly. "Nope."

"Then be careful at least!" Angela asked softly, muttering her quiet good night.

The story my schoolmate told me turned my curiosity into a dangerous beast. What was I supposed to do now? Let all the new information rot? No, I wouldn't be able to do that. The family certainly had a few secrets, while I was pretty determined to reveal them all.  
As I jumped out of Angela's car, right into the beautiful greatness of local wildlife (realists would have called it a _forest_ ), an idea occured in the very hidden corner of my mind.


	10. Friends and Enemies (2)

Emily was waiting for me with a huge smile plastered on her face. She hugged me tightly the moment I greeted her, which was a rather surprising move, at least from her part. Me and Hayden were staying here for a short time; I was well aware of that Emily and my aunt were slowly becoming friends. However, their friendship didn't change anything on the fact, that _Emily didn't know us_. She couldn't tell if we were normal, or psychotic mass killers. Well, for those who started doubting us - we weren't mass killers. It was just that Emily seemed too gullible for someone who lived in the middle of the woods, somewhere in the North of America. And since I liked her, I was worried about her.  
Fortunately, I wasn't the only person in the room, who thought so.

"Emily," a deep, male voice growled from behind the dark-haired woman. I pulled away from her softly, looking up at the person.

I cannot say I was pleased that it was the same, grumpy guy from yesterday's morning. Sam _Ugly, Umbly, Uply, Usely,_ or something like that.

"Hello there, Mr. Sam," my voice came out in a polite greeting. I would have added a smile, if only he hadn't been frowning at me.

"Step away from her," the man snapped at me warningly, his eyes burning holes into mine.

"Sam!" Emily rebuked him sharply. "Stop it, you can't act like that! She has just come back from hospital!"

" _Emms_ , that's pretty all right. I'll handle it," I did as grumpy Sam said though, since I didn't want to end up lying on the floor, bathing in my own blood, as a consequence of that idiot's stabbing me, shooting me, or whatsoever. "Look, Mr. Sam, I understand what you're thinking. Emily acted overly cordially. If she was my wife, I would have been angry about her gullibility as well. As far as I know though, me and my aunt are not planning to rob your house."

"That's what _they_ told you to do, isn't it? Pretend that you know nothing? That you're... normal even?!" Sam made a few angry steps towards me, for that, I stepped back.

"Fine," I breathed out deeply, widening my eyes at him. "Would you mind to explain what's going on in here to me?"

He wasn't able to supress his temper, that was probably the reason for him not to stop getting closer to me. "Do you think I'm completely stupid, girl?! You moved into my home, took advantage of my wife's hospitality, and I bet you're planning to raze my _pack_! So?! What had the _Cold Ones_ promised you in exchange for infiltrating my family?!"

Alright, it was official now. I had no clue what was going on in his crazy mind.  
My eyes subconsciouslly travelled to Emily. She must have gotten how confused (and scared) I was about Sam's speech, since the next thing she did was jumping between my (too small) and Sam's (way too muscled) body. _I tell you, the woman must have had nerves of steel..._

"Please, Sam, let her go. Can't you see how frightened she is, because of you?" Emily's voice was soft and pleading. Wait, what the hell was she doing?! She was supposed to take him down or... or something like that! Not to plead him to release me!

"But I can smell them! She has their _odor_ all over her clothes! What if she is on their side?!"

"Honey, she's not. Trust me," Emily put her arms on his bare shoulders, squeezing them in her petite palms. She then leaned to him - and I may have heard her wrong - but beeped: _"Hush, she's just an innocent human. You can't do what you did to me to her. I won't let you."_

That was far enough for me. I collected the rests of my self-preservation from the floor, pulling my phone out of the pocket of my jacket. Running out from the house, I typed Hayden's number as quickly as I could, before pressing the large, green button. My aunt wouldn't pick my call though; she still had to be stuck up with the surgery.

I ran out, onto a terrace, where my little attempt to escape the lunatic and his wife ended, due to my having bumped into someone. Yes, this time, I was talking about _a person_ , not _a wall._ And do you remember when I said that it'd be cool to bump into a hot guy? Well, God obviously heard out my prayers (finally!).

"Whoa! Slowing down never hurt anyone, ya know?" The boy said, obviously amused with my murderous running pace.

"Sorry," I blurted out, trying to sneak around him, in order to continue running away from the _goddamned_ house. The boy hadn't let me though.

"Hey, you must be the newbie from Ireland. Emily can't stop talking about you." He shifted to stand in front of me. "She likes you very much,  
I hope you realize that."

"Yeah... _doubt_ that," I made a quick move to the right, yet, he caught my wrist. My highly insatisfied glare went directly into his chocolate brown eyes. Soon, I discovered that looking at him was the most stupid thing I could have done. Not because he was handsome, tall, and shirtless - hey, did all the Indians from La Push really not have enough money to buy shirts?! But the absolute honesty I found in his glance disarmed me, on all fronts.

"I-I'm sorry!" He apologized, releasing my hand the moment I breathed in to yell at him. "I... didn't want to catch you like that! I-I've no idea what happened to my stupid brain... and stupid arm. Did I hurt you?"

"Hardly." My other hand inadvertently touched the wrist he had been holding and rubbed it indignantly. "But you will certainly get hurt, if you don't step away right now. I need to go for a walk."

"Really? That's Great! I'll join you."

"Ha! Alone," I crossed my arms on my chest, looking up at his smirking self. Was he teasing me? This wasn't a good time for teasing.

"Alright then," the boy threw his hands up in defeat, making a few steps to the side. I - being the distrustful me - however, made only a few steps forward, in order to ensure myself that he meant it. When no one stopped me, it became the right time to start celebrating my little victory.  
"Just by the way, three people died in there, a few months ago; in the news, they said all three of them had been attacked by a wild animal. And my mother often complains about strange, loud howling, but I guess a claptrap like that doesn't concern you. So... have a nice walk!"

"H-hold on, boy!" Turning around on my heel, I shouted to his back. That son of a bitch scared me at first and now, he was walking away, just like that! Would you believe it?

" _Seth_. My name is _Seth Clearwater_ ," the boy moved towards me slowly, towering over my bare six-feet-tall stature. "And I'm not a boy. Actually, I'm turning seventeen in December."

"Well, aren't you a truly old chap?" I grimaced at him sarcastically. "Listen, what did you say about those dead people?"

" _My, my_ , I managed to scare the toughest of tough girls! Where are the _paparazzi_?"

"Very funny," rolling my eyes, I lifted my chin up belligerently. In fact, my soul wasn't in half as violent condition as my mind, for that, the realization of how helpless situation I managed to get in hit me hard. It was apparent that this dialogue wasn't going anywhere, while I wasn't going anywhere either. No matter how dangerous this place was, I couldn't run away (because out there, there certainly was some murdering beast), or call my aunt (because she was as busy as ever), neither could I tell anybody about what I heard today. Why? Well, mainly because they would have thought I was going crazy. "Get out of my way, _Seth_."

My voice cracked in the middle of the sentence. The boy hadn't moved away for the slightest, nevertheless.  
"Hey, are ya... mad at me?" He asked suspiciously, frowning. "Come on, don't be mad. I was joking. You're not the toughest of tough girls... you can't be! 'Cause that one is my sister, without doubt."

For a few seconds, I kept staring at him. Seth's face was getting more and more worried, but still, I couldn't stop staring. He was just a year younger than me, yet, there was something about his kind sense of humor and big, sincere eyes, that made me smile at him. It wasn't the most beautiful smile I had ever given to a boy - I had to admit. Someone used to say, that any kind of an effort was highly appreciated though.

"You have a sister?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, I do," he then smiled back at me, unsure. "She is less beautiful, less smart and much less attractive than I am, of course, but she is the strongest woman I have ever met."

After that, I walked past him, towards a wooden bench in front of Emily's B&B. Sitting down, I waved at Seth, for him to join me. And so he did.

"Tell me about her."

"But, you wanted to know about the dead - "

"Well, I don't anymore." I shrugged my shoulders, pulling my legs up, to sit on them and to make my sitting there more comfortable. "I'm Gwyneth Callaghan. Just to prevent us from awkwardness later."

"Alright then, _Gwyneth_ ," Seth started talking about his family and I turned my brain off for good. The particular afternoon was the craziest one I had ever experienced. No wonder that my head soon fell on Clearwater's shoulder, as the sweetness of slumber took advantage of me.


	11. Of Meddling, Speculating and Pleadin

**IX. Of Meddling, Speculating and Pleading**

 _"If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one." ― Jeannette Walls_

* * *

I woke up in my bed the next morning, dressed in my pyjamas. That alone was more than suspicious, since everything I remembered from last evening was my falling asleep on Seth Clearwater's shoulder. It was uncomfortable as hell, by the way, while it brought me a terrible pain in the neck, which I would never wish even for my worst enemy. However, Seth was a cutie, who wasn't hard to start to like. Yesterday, he spoke about his mother, sister, school and his friends from La Push. He clearly loved them more than anything in the world.  
That was why I felt really bad, when I tried to get him to say something more about the crazy man - Sam. Seth told me, that he was considered to be a leader of their bunch (which they called _The Pack_ ). Sam had been dating Seth's sister ( _Leah_ ) before we moved in, but left her because of Emily. _What a huge family drama._

Getting out of the bed, Hayden's voice sounded from behind the door of my room. She asked me about how I was feeling, advising me not to go to school yet. I refused, naturally. Afterwards, she started talking about Seth - how nice and polite boy he was; that without him, I would have spent the night on the bench, because in was him who brought me to my room; and so on. That was the right time for me to open the door.

"You let him enter my room?" I blurted out through the toothbrush that was in my mouth. Hayden narrowed her eyes at me.

" _There_ , good morning to you too, _Sunshine_. I'm glad you slept well," her words carried a slight hint of irony. "And yes, I let him carry you into your room, because I didn't want you to catch a cold from sleeping on a bench."

"Urgh, Hayden! You are the one who should denounce me for my frivolity, not the other way round. I barely know him, you don't know him at all!"

"Well, it's your point of view," my aunt tilted her head to the side. "Yesterday, the two of us had a little chat. Seth told me you agreed to tutore him Physics."

I stopped brushing my teeth immediately, as the memory hit me hard. Circa three seconds before I fell asleep, Seth asked me if I would be willing to tutor him Physics, for twenty bucks per hour. Of course I murmured a sleepy yes - w _ho am I to reject money?_

 _"_ Yeah, that's the deal. But it doesn't mean-"

"And you two got rather... close yesterday, don't you think?" She interrupted me in the middle of a good argument.

"What _the hell_ are you suggesting?"

"Watch your mouth, young lady," Hayden frowned at me, so there, I sighed. "Besides, I don't know why you are so upset. I told you I liked Seth - you two have my blessing. Isn't that what all girls of your age want?"

"Hayden!" I exclaimed indignantly. "I'm not planning to date him! He's younger than me!"

"One year. Who cares about one year?" My aunt shrugged her shoulders.

This was my turn to frown at her. "I care! Okay, look. I'm really... excited about how much you like Seth, but I'm not going to date him - that's it. And next time, I'd really appreciate if you wouldn't encroach on my relationships."

With that, I shut the door closed, rushing into the bathroom, to finish my usual morning hygiene stuff. Meanwhile brushing my hair, I noticed a strange reflection in the bottom corner of the mirror. The small window in the bathroom overlooked the driveway, where there appeared a big, beige car. It was a _Jeep_ \- the one I remembered from my second day in Forks; the one I suspected from belonging to someone who lived near Alice.  
I quickly ran downstairs, in order to find out who was the owner of the surely expensive car. Grabbing a banana and a muffin from the kitchen counter, I realized that there was no living soul in the dining room, except for my aunt, who had been drinking her morning coffee and reading an issue of newspaper, while happily ignoring my presence.

At first, I wanted to ignore her as well, making my way to the door. Hyden ostentatiously cleared her throat the moment I touched the door handle, and when I looked at her, she turned to another page. This was typical. She was way too stubborn to admit she was wrong, while I was too stubborn to apologize for my behaviour. Sometimes, she would eventually start talking to me, sometimes, I would eventually start talking to her. This time, I wasn't in the mood for struggling with her (y _eah, I can't believe I said that either_ ), therefore, a tornmented sigh escaped my throat, as I turned around.  
"I'm sorry, alright?"

"For?" She pushed, still not looking at me.

"For being rude, for using the word _hell_ and... and for telling you not to encroach on my relationships."

She lifted her eyes from the newspaper and a ghost smile fleshed across her face. "It is all right, Honey. Actually, I realized I owed you an apology as well. I am truly sorry for my talking to Seth about you, in your absence. I just... got carried away, when I saw you in his arms. Nevertheless, if my staying away from your relationships is what you want, then I will never stick my nose into it ever again."

Whoa. That was the longest apology I had ever been given by her. Unfortunately, I had to cut off the great feeling of being apologized to, and made a few steps towards her table. Pulling a chair out for me to sit on, I bit my lower lip hesitantly. My aunt had been looking at me with concern, as I drummed my nails against the desk of the table.

"Hayden, have you seen Emily this morning?"

"No, I haven't. She left a note about leaving _waffles_ in the fridge for breakfast _._ You know how much I love _waffles_ ; for that, I didn't ask, just accepted the facts," the blonde narrowed her eyes at me. "Why do you ask?"

I exhaled all the unnecessary air from my lungs, encouraging myself to talk. "Yesterday, when I got back from the hospital, there was a little... _misunderstanding_ between me and Emily's husband, Sam."

"Really?" Hayden wondered. "What kind of misunderstanding?"

 _And that was exactly the question I didn't want her to ask._ "It wasn't a big deal, he just... started talking crap, accusing me of colluding with some people I don't know. He spoke about our taking advantage of Emily's hospitality and all the time, he looked like he'd explode in anger," I grimaced over the memory of Sam's fuming face, looking up at my aunt's now regularly worried expression. "Afterwards, I was a bit... scared, for that, I ran out, to order my thoughts on a walk. But Seth appeared, we started chatting and... you know the rest."

"Oh, _Sweetheart_ ," she covered my hand with hers, squeezing it supportively. "I'm so sorry you had to go through it alone. I-I thought that staying in this particular B&B was a good idea - Emily seemed so nice on the phone. When I had booked our rooms, I hadn't known Emily wasn't the owner. And when we met the boor - _Sam -_ it was too late for us to move to the _Inn_ in the town centre."

"So... you're not angry at me?" I asked, unsure.

Hayden smiled gently. "No, _Honey_. I'm angry at myself for letting the _boor_ say those things to you. Besides that, I stopped liking him the moment he kicked us out of the dining room, the day before yesterday."

I heaved a sigh of relief, shifting on my chair.

"We have to move out immediately," Hayden pouched her lips finically. "I was planning to call the real estate agent today anyways, to ask him about our house. It's been two days; they got enough time to fix the floors or... whatever, right?"

"Right. If he will try to make any excuses, tell him to do the fix out on his own," I adviced her, after which she laughed warm-heartedly.

"Indeed I will!"

Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten another opportunity to comment it, since the doorbell rang. I had completely forgotten about the Jeep on the driveway, therefore, I almost jumped in surprise when the sound of the ring pierced the dining room. I jumped up onto my feet, sending Hayden a quick, questioning glance.

"What are you waiting for? Go ahead, don't let your friend wait!" She exclaimed. "Have a nice day, Honey, and do me a favor - avoid any other elm trees."

***

"Morning, _Bubble_ ," Emmett Cullen's huge grin appeared right in front of my eyes, once I opened the door. I lifted my eyebrows at the nickname he decided to give me.

"Hiya, _Hulk_ ," I lifted my chin defiantly, folding my arms over my chest.

" _Hulk?_ C _ome on_ , I'm not green!" He protested, apparently amused.

"And I'm not a ball. See? Now, we're even," I nearly stuck my tongue out at him. "Anyways, what are ya doing here?"

"Picking you up. We figured you might need a lift to school, due to what happened the day before yesterday," Emmett's eyes held some kind of conspiracy right then. "Besides that, Jasper wouldn't stop marching across the living room, speculating about how you're doing, without your car."

I blinked couple of times, surprised with his honesty. "J-Jasper has been talking about me?"

" _Hell_ , yeah... Since the visit at hospital, he's literally unstoppable. It's annoying, really."

A furtive smile engraved into my lips, as I patted Emmett's shoulder eagerly. Not that I didn't have to step on my tiptoes, to achieve what I wanted. In fact, if there was something annoying, it was _Hulk's_ excessive height.

"W _ell,_ it seems that my allergy to roses marked him for ever," I leaned to right side, in order to look at the Jeep that had been standing on the driveway. I was just about to start walking in the direction of the car, when a memory of Emmett's highly impolite girlfriend came to my mind.  
"Emmett, can I have a question?"

The young man grinned at me once again. "Sure thing, _Bubble_ , just keep in mind that I have a girlfriend."

"I've managed to notice, _asshole_. She's a memorable... _woman_ , that's the truth." The following grimace of mine apparently wasn't acid enough, because Emmett started laughing. "If she's in the car, I'd rather get to school walking."

"Don't worry, Rose went with Alice."

" _Good_ ," breathing out in relief, I straightened my back. " _Gosh_ , let's go! Can't wait to be given a lift in a _Jeep_! Can I drive?"

Emmett's grin finally disappeared, because of me. _Twice a hurray!_ "Huh... no."

"Please, _Em_! Only a few miles... _please, please, please!_ " I pleaded childishly, creating the best puppy dog eyes I was capable of. After some time, _Hulk_ surrendered, handing the keys to me. I took them from him, jumped up in happiness, clapped my hands, and ran towards the car.  
"Yay! Thank you so much, you're the best!"

"Yeah... just don't scrape the bumper while reversing!"


	12. Lost Temper

_"_ _I came to realize that if people could make me angry they could control me. Why should I give someone else such power over my life?" - Ben Carson, Gifted Hands_

The drive to Cullen's family house was held in silence. I was sitting in the back, Edward drove and Bella picked the passanger seat. Soon after Edward rolled the car onto the main road, Miss Swan turned on the radio, therefore, I hadn't managed to catch practically anything of the conversation the two of them had. That was why I started looking out of the window, affronted, and ignoring their presence. I can assure you, that if it hadn't been an excessively expensinve, amazing Volvo I had been sitting in, I would have started to scratch ornaments into the gum gasket in the base of the window, with my nails. When Edward huffed and while I imagined the five zeroes in price of the car, the violent tendencies left me.

We arrived to a modern, semi-detached house in the middle of the woods soon, at the sight of which my jaw dropped, by the way. It looked exactly like one of the examples from the magazines about housing and living, while I was sure that even George Clooney (or someone similarly famous) wouldn't be ashamed of living in a residence like that.  
In the same time, its glorious magnificence made me wonder, how could Mr. Cullen - adoptive father of Cullen siblings - afford to build it. Hayden said he was a Senior Consultant of the surgery in Forks hospital. The hospital belonged to the state though, therefore, the salaries of the emploees weren't half as high as in private hospitals. I was sure about that, since I noticed my aunt was spending more time at work in here, than she had back in Dublin. Time to time moreover, she was assigned more night shifts than day shifts. Working as one of the few doctors Forks had wasn't a walk through rosy garden.

Bella had already been out of the car, since Edward opened the door on passanger's side for her. I figured that it'd be nice of me to stop staring at the building and get my butt out of the Volvo quickly, before the idiot of a man would forget about me and lock me inside.

"Worry not, you're _unforgettable_ ," Edward grimaced at me, as if he had heard every word of what I thought. Instead of asking him anything (it would be useless anyways), I stuck my tongue out at him, walking over to Bella's side. Breathing in deeply, I tried hard to ignore the nervousness that had been growing in the pit of my stomach. Bella smiled at me in her usual, shy way, nevertheless, this gesture of hers encouraged me a bit.

The interior of the house was furnished according to my taste. There weren't too many things inside - it was corresponding with the nice, modern minimalist style. Neither there were photos or pictures of the family itself, which soon made another note on my long list of oddities about the particular family. Everything was cleaned neatly, for that, I assumed Mrs. Cullen to be a good housekeeper, besides her obvious being a patient mother.

"Hello there, you two!" Alice's exclamation pulled me out of my thoughts. She hugged Bella at first, then, she grinned at me and pulled me into a tight embrace. As if we hadn't seen each other for years, instead of hours. After the hug, I managed to spot Edward and Alice, exchanging gloomy glances, but before I managed to say something, other people appeared on the top of the staircase. It was a petite, pale, beautiful, middle-aged woman, dressed in purple dress. Her huge, warm-hearted smile was shining to all directions, and she had the same, golden eyes as the man on her left and the rest of the family. That had to be Mrs. Cullen and the blonde guy was surely Doctor Cullen.

"Be careful, Alice," the woman said in a pleasantly pitched, motherly tone of voice. Meanwhile, I was wondering what should Alice be careful about, considering I was the one who knew nothing about this family, being in their house, somewhere in the woods, miles away from the city.

A loud snort came from behind me all of sudden, for that, I looked around, only to find Edward grinning at me. He was going to make a comment, however, the man on Mrs. Cullen's left stopped him with a lifted palm. "No more teasing, son. There is a huge celebration to come," the man ordered peremptorily, yet, in a kind way. His eyes then moved to me and to Ms. Swan. "Bella, it's nice to see you again. Ms. Callaghan, it is our pleasure to have you here; we've heard so much about you. Both of you, welcome."

"Thank you, Mr. Cullen, it's nice to meet you too." I offered him a small smile, then, I looked at his wife. "Mrs. Cullen, you have a wonderful home."

"Oh Honey, thank you for the flattery. Sometimes, leading the family is really exhausting," she shot a look to Rosalie, who appeared out of nowhere, right next to Alice. "Please, call me _Esme_."

"And my name is _Carlisle_ ," added Dr. Cullen.

"Alright, _Esme, Carlisle... Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Edward, Bella_ and..." I started repeating the names aloud, in order to engrave them into my memory, before my sight landed on the only person that could make me blush for no particular reason. _Oh no, was it happening right now?_ " _Jasper.._. I am _Gwyneth_."

"Great! We can start moving now!" Alice clapped her hands for a few times, ordering Edward to lead Bella away from the living room for a few minutes, since shewould have to prepare it. On Bella's face, scepticism had been apparent by then, but she hadn't had enough courage to protest against Alice. Nobody in the world had enough courage, actually.

"Aw, Gwyn! I'm sorry, but I need you to stay out too. _Jazz_ , could ya show her the house, please?" Jasper looked at her precariously. "Come on, just for a few minutes! Nothing bad will happen, I promise."

Besides my not being sure how could Alice promise him what will or won't happen, Jasper's apparent reluctance to walking with me sort of offended me. It shouldn't have had this kind of effect on me; after all, I hated myself for allowing him to make me feel that way about it. Although he nodded in agreement in the end, walking towards me hesitantly, I turned around out of spite, as I started climbing up the stairs, before he managed to show the way.

As soon as we got out of sight and earshot, I turned around sharply. Again, I started regreting my actions soon, because the moment I did so, I bumped directly into Hale's chest. His strong arms prevented me from falling down, forasmuch as his chest was as hard as a... _wall_. Wait up. Why did this remind me of something that had already happened?  
My thoughts started running through my mind, as relentlessly as the fastest horses on the races. The memory of my having bumped into a wall - _no, into something that seemed to be a wall_ \- only a few days ago, at school, appeared in front of my eyes. It was the day I met _Eric Yorkie_ , the day I found out _Rosalie Hale_ was a bitch, and the day I first spotted _Jasper Hale_.

All the events were playing right in front of my eyes, as vividly as ever. Until Jasper lifted his hand up, towards my forehead, and brushed his fingertips softly over my bruise. I didn't like what he was doing, yet, I wasn't able to force myself to do something about it.

"What happened to you?" He asked huskily.

"You know what happened, you were there," I replied quietly.

Jasper narrowed his eyes at me. "I am afraid I don't know what you mean, Gwyneth. You saw me for the first time in the school canteen."

" _Hell no,_ I didn't," I insisted on mine, with much stronger emphasis this time. "You were watching me in the corridor, when I bumped into the wall, after Chemistry, before lunch! Well, I was sure it was a wall, 'cause it was too hard to be a person, until Eric Yorkie told me it was you. I didn't believe him then, but now..."

Jasper released his grip on my arms, his eyes darkening. "Now what?" he pressed. "What changed your mind about _what is_ and _isn't_ real?"

Not knowing what to say, I swallowed hard. "You did!" I punched him in the shoulder (my biggest mistake of the day, by the way), while Jasper smiled humourlessly. I wasn't done talking yet though.  
"You have no idea how hard it is for me to be near _you..._ or _Alice_! Everything about you two is somehow... irresistible for me. No matter how much I want to stop caring though, I can't. _Dammit, I just... can't!_ "  
My rage had surely showed itself on my cheeks, which were burning by then. However, a strong wave of calmness crashed into me suddenly, and I couldn't do any less than accept it. Once again.

Jasper just watched me carefully, not saying a single word.

"What was that?" I asked hoarsely.

"What do you mean?" He looked careless, though, I had been observing him long enough to know that he was becoming nervous. _Good. At least, now he knew how I felt every time I met him randomly._

"This change of my mood. It has already happened to me once. About a week ago, in the Chemist- _oh my god._.." I stopped myself in the middle of the sentence, as my hand fired to my mouth. I covered it, in order to mute my shriek. "It's _you_ , isn't it?"

Jasper frowned, making a few steps towards me. I backed away, scared. "Don't come any closer!"

"Calm down, Gwyneth," the man ordered authoritatively, stretching his hand towards me. I ignored him. "You're not thinking straight."

"I said don't come -" This time, it wasn't a realization that interrupted me. It was Jasper, who literally clutched my arms in his relatively big palms and pinned me against one of the walls hard enough to knock the wind out of me. Not being able to think about anything else than the excessive speed of the movement of his, I was left to gasp for air.

"You want to know the truth? So be it," his voice was coming out in dangerous hisses. "Every day, since you came to school, it costs me _everything_ to control myself around you. You think the fact, that you're physically attracted to me, is hard for you? Then you're as self-obsessed as everyone else! Everything I can think about, when being with my wife, is you! I don't want it to happen either, but - _to quote you_ \- I obviously can't do anything about it!"

 _Well, that was, apparently it. Jasper Hale lost his temper._


End file.
